Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1887-01-11
BY THE WATERS OF PARADISE.
nv '. MARION CRAWFORD.

memory, Tor | have never been clever In
learning words by heart, in prose or rhyme
so that believe my remembrance OF events
depends much more upon the events them.
soives thah upon my possessing any special
iaon'ty lot recalling them. Perhaps ! am
700 imaginative, and the earliest Impressions
received were OF Kind to stimulate tho
imagination abnormaliy. A long series oI
iittle misfortunes, connected with each other
as TO suggest n sort of weird fatality, ~
worked upon my melancholy tomperamen,
when was a boy that before was OF age I
snct rely believed myself 10 be under n
curse, and not only myself but my whole
iamily and every Ia Individual who bore my
name.
l was born In tho old placs whore my
father, and his father, and all his predeces.
sors had beon born, beyond the memory OF
man. 1t Is very old house, and the greater
part OF 1t was originally n castle, strangely y
i"ftinod and surrounded by deep noat
supplied with abundant water from tho hills
by hidden aqueduCt Many oi the fortih.
cations have been destroy cd and the moat has
been filled up. The water from the sque-
duct supplies great fountains, and runs
down into huge obiong basins in the terraced
gardens, ono below the other, each sur
rounded by broad pavement of marble he'
tween the water and the flower beds. The
waste surplus finally escapes through an
artificial grotto, some thirty yards long, into
the meadows beyond, ana thence TO the d Is
tant river The buildings were extended "A
little aud greatly altered more than two hun.
dred years ago, In tho time oi Charles l. :,
but since then little has been done to i'm
prove them though they have been kept In
iairly good repair, according 10 our for
tunes.
In The gardens there are terraces and huge
hedges OF box aud evergreen, some OF which
used TO be clipped into shapes OF animals In
n | hat
WAS lad how | used To try 20 make out
what the trees were cut to represent and how
used to appeal for explanations to Judith,
my Welsh nurse She dealt In strange my.
thology OF her own and peopled the gardens
with griffins, dragons, good genii aud bad,
and hlled my mind with them at the same
time My nursery window afforded view
OF the great fountains at the head OF the
upper basin and on moonlight night. tho
Welshwoman would hold ms up to the
Hlsss and bid mo look at the mist aud spray
rising into mysterious shapes, moving mys-
ticslly IN the white light ike living
things.
It's the Woman oftho Water " she used
10 say and sometimes she would threaten
that II | did not go to sleep the Woman Of
the Water would steal up to the high win.
dow and carry me away In her wet arms.
The place was gloomy. The broad basins
ot water and the tall evergreen hedges gave
II - funeTeal look, and tho dam.staiued mar.
ble causeways toy the pools might have been
made OF tointstonea Tho gray and weather
beaten walls and towers without the dark
and massiyely furnished rooms within, the
deep, mysterious rcCosses aud the heavy cur
iaias all affected my spirits / WAS silent and
sad from my childhood. There was a great
clock tower above, from which the hours
rang di.mally during the day, and tolled
ike "a knell Ia the dead Of light. There was
40 light nor life In the house, for my mother
was "A helpless invalid and my father had
grown melancholy in his long task OF caring
"a tA laFz ftl.
eyes Kind, 1 think, but silent and unhappy
Next 10 my mother, believe he loved me
better than anything on earth, for he took
immense pains and trouble In teaching me
ana what he taught me | have never forgot
ten. Perhaps it was his only amusement and
that may be the reason why had no nursery
Roverness or teacher of any Kind while Le
lived.
used to be taken to SEQ my mother every
day and sometimes twice a day, tor an hour
at "A time Then | sat upon a little stool near
her feet and she would ask mo what | had
been and what l wanted 10 do. dare say
she saw already the seeds of profound mel.
sncholy In my nature, for she looked at me
always with a sad smile aud kissed me with
sigh when | was taken away.
One night when was Just six years old, |
lay awake In tho nursery. The door was not
quite shut and the Welsh nurse was sitting,
saving IN tho next room. Suddenly heard
her groau anu say In = strange voice, "Ono-
two--one-two'' | was frightened and |
Jumped up and nan 10 the door, bareiooled rs
] WAS
"whst IL II, judith ~ cried. clipgipg to
her skirts / can remember the look in her
strange dark eyes a. she answered:
"One-two loadou cCtlius, fallen from the
ceiling !" she crooned, working herself in her
chair "One--twO--a light colin and
heavy coffin fallen to the floor I"
Then she seemed - notice me, and she
took me back TO bed and sang mo 10 sleep
with queer old Welsh song.
do not know how II was, but the impres.
sion got hold Cf me that she had meant that
my father and mother were going to die very
soon. They died in the very room whore
she had been sitting that night 1t was a
great room, my day nursery, full of sun,
when there was any, and when the DAYS
were dark 1t WAS tho most cheerful place in
the house. My mother grew rapidly worse,
and / was transferred 10 another part OF the
building to make place for her. They thought
ny nursery was gsyer for her, | suppose
but she could not live. She was beautiful
when she WAS dead, and cried bitterly.
" The light one, tho light one--the heavy
one Tor me- CTooned the Welsh woman.
And she was right My father took the room
after my mother was gone, aud day by day
he grew thinner and paler and sadder.
The heavy one, the heavy one-sll OF
Lead moaned my nurse, one night in De-
cember, standing still, just rs she was going
to take away the light after putting me to
bed. Then she took me up again, aud
wrapped me in little gown, aud led me
away TO my fathers room. she knocked,
but no one answered. She opened the Il Oor,
ana We found him in his easy chair before
the tre, very white, quite dead.
so l wasalone with the WelshwOman TIL
strange people came and relations whom ]
had never seen, and then heard them say Ing
that ! must be taken away To some more
cheerful place. They were kind people, and
l Will not believe that they we're kind only
because was to be very rich when grew To
De a man. The world never seemed to be
very bad place TO me, nor all the people to be
miserable sinners, even when / was most
melancholy. | do not remember that any
one ever did me any great in ustice nor that
l was ever oppressed or ill-treated in any
way, even by the boys at school. / was sad,
l suppose, because my childhood was 30
gloomy, and, later, because | was unlucky in
everything / undertook, till 1 finally be-
lieved was pursued by fate, and | used TO
dream that the old Welsh nurse and the
Woman OF the Water between them had
vowed to pursue me to my end. But my
natural disposition should have been cheer.
fnl, rs have often thought.
Among lads OF my age was never last or
even among tho last in anything but | was
never first II | trained for a race was
sure 10 spfain my ankle on the day when |
was TO run. II 1 pulled an oar with others
my oar was sure to break. If | competed
tor prize some unforeseen accident pre-
vented my winning 1t at the last momeut
Nothing to which put my hand succeede ed :,
ana got the reputation OF being unlucky
until my companion felt il was ALWAYS safe
10 bet against me, no matter what the appear.
aDces might be. 1 became discouraged and
listless In everything / gave up the idea OF
competing tor any distinction at the univer